Monday, September 7, 2009

While I still do enjoy reading about Meg and her family's life at the White House, I felt like this book was way too narrow-focused. I realize that the shooting of the President would be an extremely serious event, but I definitely feel it was far too drawn out and could have easily been condensed, leaving room for other stories. I did like seeing some of the characters develop a little more, particularly Steven, through their interactions with Meg. I felt like Meg's temperament after the shooting was accurate, but again, narrow. I would have liked to see more of how others were reacting. We got a glimpse of what was going through Steven's mind, but not really Neal's or especially her cryptic father's. I mean, at the beginning of the book, I was convinced that her parents were going to divorce, which, horrible as it is, would make a really interesting story. It's a little drastic then, to see the relationship between Meg's parents be slightly awkward, wobbly, and unsure, to the most steadfast, loving relationship out there. In general though, the Powers family just has the most personality of any book family I've read about (except maybepossibly the Weasleys). I think the one most powerful line of this book was Meg's mother talking about her shooter, saying only "I hope he gets help." Such a simple line ends up conveying so much about everything: decorum at the white house, her mother's compassion, her mother's position. Amazing. Again, it's a good book, but I'm hoping it's one of those that's a bridge to better sequels.

"there are those who say that life is like a book, with chapters for each event in your life and a limited number of pages on which you can spend your time. but i prefer to think that a book is like a life, particularly a good one, which is well worth staying up all night to finish"--lemony snicket